1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is broadly concerned with an improved patient-supporting bed that facilitates various diagnoses, and particularly echocardiography scans, upon a person lying upon the bed. More particularly, it is concerned with such a diagnostic bed that includes a horizontal uppermost bed surface, an exercise apparatus coupled to one end of the bed, a tilting mechanism for tilting the bed surface, and a novel patient support apparatus for securely supporting the patient on the tilted bed.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Diagnosis of cardiac irregularities often involves a treadmill test, wherein a patient exercises on a treadmill in order to increase his or her heartbeat to an elevated rate where an abnormality may be detected. Experience has proved that treadmill (exercise EKG) testing alone will not give an accurate diagnosis for a relatively large number of patients, i.e., even though the heart rate is elevated, an extant problem will not be detected. This is particularly the case with female patients.
As a consequence, it has become a common practice to perform cardiac sonography (also known as an echocardiography scan) on a patient immediately after a treadmill test is completed and while the patient's heart rate is still elevated. This combined diagnostic technique has proven to be very successful in correctly ascertaining the true condition of the patient's heart. However, to obtain optimum test results, it is necessary that two conditions be met. First, the cardiac sonography must be completed immediately after the treadmill test is concluded. Every second is important because the heart fully recovers from the effects of exercise in about two minutes. Second, the patient should be examined while either lying on the left side (left lateral) or while the bed is tilted downward to the left so that the patient's left side is tilted downward. The leftward tilting of the patient or the bed causes the patient's heart to shift leftward in the chest cavity. This allows the sonography probes to obtain more sensitive and accurate results.
To best meet these two conditions, it is advantageous to provide a patient-supporting bed which includes an exercise apparatus coupled to the bed and a tilting mechanism to tilt the bed so that the patient's left side is lowered relative to the rest of the body. In this way, the patient can exercise on the attached exercise apparatus and can be subsequently immediately examined. Since the bed can be tilted to shift the patient, the patient can be placed in the optimum position while exercising, thus eliminating the time needed to position the patient after exercise. Preferred patient-supporting beds include a drop-out access door or section in the bed adjacent the heart region which can be lowered to provide an access opening allowing the sonographer to place the sonography probe(s) at the various positions required for the diagnosis.
Use of diagnostic beds of this type presents a significant problem. In particular, the patient tends to slide off the bed while it is being tilted, resulting in injury or discomfort to the patient. One prior art solution to this problem is to provide the bed with standard seat belt type securement devices. These seat belts are attached to the sides of the bed and wrap around the top of the patient's stomach. Although standard seat belts prevent the patient from falling completely off the bed, they fail to prevent the patient from sliding on the surface of the bed. As a result, the patient slides to the left edge of the tilted bed and becomes uncomfortably wedged between the seat belt and the edge of the bed. Moreover, standard seat belts are awkward to use and pinch the patient's stomach.
There is accordingly a real and unsatisfied need for an improved diagnostic bed especially adapted to overcome the problems of prior beds of this character in the context of cardiac sonography examinations.